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Screwing around with old cars regardless if going full stock or something else should be fun. Enjoy the experience. It doesn't really matter what others think; although, compliments are nice to receive. Do it. You will be glad you did.

Spot on JWL. The original post by PackRat mentioned a little more power and excitement. I screw around with my old Packard and enjoy it every time. I did not take his inquiry as a serious Bonneville Salt Flats mechanical technical mega cost concours conversion. I took it as "what can I have fun with?" Others note the topic has been discussed many times. Searching the forum for old posts has a lot of info. No worries.

Interestingly, I had followed this 1953 Mayfair with a supercharged V8 stuffed into it:

mecum.com/lots/CH1019-389031/1953-packard-mayfair/

I have also been intrigued by the history of the McCulloch VS57 supercharger in the 50s:

vs57.y-block.info/history.htm

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It has to do with the design of the L8 and not what one likes. HP/weight ratio is important and these blocks are almost twice what a V design would weigh.
That's why not many did much, so few parts ever existed.
The Ford flathead guys, because of shear numbers and V design, had much better success and are still in business.
We hashed this out pretty thoroughly in the modification forum a few years back. Maybe go look instead of rehash old info.

Precisely. Go have some fun and spend some money. You didn't really need the money anyway.


The basic power increasing principle is, an engine is a kind of air pump. So, to make more power, one has to flow more air. The old saying is that there is no substitute for cubic inches. You'll be wanting those, and you'll be wanting to port and relieve the block, and you'll be wanting bigger valves. I haven't looked into what is available for replacement valves, but I suspect those would have to be custom fabricated. Also not sure what the limits to size increases are. Supercharging starts to make a lot of sense very quickly. You're likely limited to 10 pounds of boost without o-ringing the block, and you'll be in the head gasket fabrication business if you do that, I suspect. There's an article out there somewhere about a guy who was fitting a pair of IIRC Mopar 4.7L right side heads to a Packard block to convert it to SOHC operation.


And you can't o-ring a relieved block, it dawns on me.


This guy's book helped me more than any other about the theory of getting the most bang for your petro dollars:

cartechbooks.com/products/david-vizards- ... d-horsepower?variant=34828555911213

I'm a purist and not into modifications, but adding this information for those that enjoy that.

The "guy" doing the SOHC on a 356 is my friend Ed up in New Hampshire. It's now finished and functioning, a project that took several years and a huge amount of re-engineering and metal machining. Here's an early picture and another as it was nearing completion. Not a project for anyone without a very good machine shop and skills, or a large budget. The engine is now installed into a 35 or 36 "120" which required extensive changes to accomodate the engine/trans.

As to supercharging, including a well-known photo of a factory experimental supercharger installation on a 6th Series big 8. I've never seen any data on what kind of performance it generated.

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I'd like to see some pictures of the finished (or in progress) car, featuring the engine compartment, of course.

Wat,

This thread on the PAC Website contains more info on the SOHC build but no further photos.

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Thanks, Mal. I had read that thread previously and the concepts (some, not all) stuck in my head. Frankly, my dear, I can't imagine what a royal pain in the @$$ making those divergent things work must be/have been.


I think that a flathead Ford becomes something else when you put a set of Ardun heads on it, and I feel similarly about this-here rig. Maybe I'm stuck on flatheadedness.


I wish I had bothered to learn something about machining when I wore a younger man's clothes.

That sohc is awesome! Makes my little efi conversion look like amateur hour lol!

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Wat, I am a journeyman prototype machinist (or at least I was when younger) and I still cannot imagine ever taking on a project like this! It would be very daunting to say the least. Yes, I could have done the machining but certainly not the engineering behind it!